


One Foot in the Grave

by winterspirit13



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Good Brother Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus whump, Sick Klaus Hargreeves, Sickfic, Whump, and he tries to do stuff anyways, it turns bad very quickly, klaus has a fever basically, set sometime before the apocalypse probably, sick, thank god that is a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 19:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18629680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterspirit13/pseuds/winterspirit13
Summary: Based on a prompt from taylortut: I HAVE A PROMPT FOR YOU! If you don't like it, I can try again! what about Klaus with a very high fever thinking he's talking to a ghost but he keeps losing track of what he's saying or where he is, and eventually whoever is with him (one of his brothers? I'm a sucker for Five, but whoever you want!!) connects his inability to focus with the fact that he said he wasn't feeling well earlier? :)Klaus wakes up feeling off, but he can muddle through. He's been through worse before, right? Too bad his fever gets worse, fast. And on comes confusion, ghosts, and Five secretly being a sweet (big? little?) brother to Klaus





	One Foot in the Grave

Klaus was utterly disorientated when he woke up. That much wasn’t very new. From years of drugs, trauma, and never staying in one place for very long once he had run away from the Umbrella Academy, he was pretty used to a bit of confusion in the morning. Or, well, afternoon as it usually was.

But as he sat up, Klaus realized the fog spinning in his head wasn’t going to fade away. “Oh, shit…” he groaned, smushing his cheeks around as if it would do much help.

“Yeah, you sure look it,” chimed in Ben. Klaus hadn’t been paying attention to him in the first few moments of his consciousness, so he paused mid-cheek-squishing to stick his tongue. He knew that only looked more ridiculous, and Ben’s eye roll proved him right. Klaus swears that even if he didn’t see Ben, he’d still be able to sense his brother’s expressions. He’d rarely been high enough for that. Oh, being high. Now that was a thought…

“Klaus, no. That’s a bad decision face, and you said you were going to be sober.”

Klaus lets out a dramatic groan, swinging his feet over the side of the bed. He knows that he knows, but it’s still tempting. He was way too sober to feel this… out of it. But it wasn’t so bad. Ben hadn’t even caught on yet! Well, he kind of had, but only a little so it didn’t count.

He pushed himself out of the bed but stumbled. Ben rushed towards him instinctively to catch him, but all it accomplished was making his ass’s return to his bed a little chillier.

Well. So much for not worrying Ben.

“Shit, man.” Ben pulled his hands away, suppressing a bit of a shudder. Klaus had to do the same. It was weird when they forgot they were separated like that. It was weird. Klaus felt weird. “Are you sick? I know you didn’t take anything since… right?”

Klaus shook his head. “I wish… but I am unfortunately sober so your first guess is the winner!” He smiled ear to ear before returning his head to his pillow. “Whatever. They won’t really need me and for now, I am still healthy as a fiddle!”

Ben sighed. Klaus didn’t turn to look. “You know it’s fit as a fiddle or healthy as a horse right? You can’t just…” Klaus was  _sure_ there was another eye-roll, but the amused breath Ben let out was much nicer. And Klaus could very well do whatever he liked. Which right now, was resting his eyes before one of the others dragged him out of bed for some “productive” activity…

Klaus had barely let his eyes rest again when a knock thudded on his door. “Klaus! Klaus get up! We need you down here and it’s already two!”

He let out a groan. Out of all his siblings to disturb him, it was Luther. He was using his Number One voice, which meant there was probably some meeting that if he wasn’t there for, Luther would just drag him down himself. He tried that once – not ideal. Luther wasn’t the gentlest of their siblings.

Klaus got up this time, slower than the last. He managed not to stumble this time but fuck was everything worse. His head pounded and lungs felt heavy and slow. And he was freezing. Way too cold…

He decided to put on his fluffiest jacket, and call it a day. Klaus made his way down the stairs tenderly, ignoring Ben’s constant glances of concern. He entered the living room, unsettled to find more faces than just his siblings staring at him as he entered. With careful practice, he let his eyes slide over the bodies of the dead and on to his more lively audience.

“Well. I feel like shit, but since I love you  _all so much_ ,” he dragged out, faux sweetness dripping from the words, “I am here for this very important meeting which I’m sure I will have many things to contribute to.” Klaus slid into his chair at the breakfast table and tried not to look too relieved at the notion of not standing.

“Alright, if Klaus is done being Klaus we can finally  _begin_ ,” Luther said, never one to hide his annoyance. Ouch.  His face was strong, focused. Still, the leader daddy dearest wanted him to be, Klaus supposed.

Allison and Diego were listening fairly intently. Five looked at him calculatingly, and Vanya- sweet Vanya – almost looked a bit concerned.

Klaus sat back in his chair, closing his eyes. He suddenly felt even more exhausted just trying to observe them. He tried to make an effort to listen, he really did. He was sure it was important. But no matter what, the words just stopped connecting. He let himself drift in a daze until-

“Klaus? Klaus!” his eyes opened, and he turned to the voice. “Hm?” He mumbled. Strangely aware how out of it he sounded. “Klaus, you should rest, tell them you’re feeling worse!”

Oh, Ben. He let his eyes slide closed. That not what Ben wanted, clearly, he kept repeating his name, but Klaus didn’t want to move. Then again, was that just Ben? It seemed like it was more than him.

“Hey Klaus? Klaus, come on. Klaus!  _KLAUS!”_

He jolted back, chair screeching, his head turning in sluggish horror. There were ghosts when he got there right? Why was this one so persistent now? Was he shaking or shivering – it must be the former, he could feel the sweat on his forehead, he couldn’t really be this cold. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the woman in front of him now, her skin a sickly blue color and horribly swollen. He wasn’t sure how long he stared like that, it couldn’t have been that long but his mind wasn’t processing anything else.

“Klaus?” He felt a hand on him, another body block the image of the woman. He let himself blink. “Did you… you know, take something?”

“No I… I don’t think so? I feel…” He wasn’t really sure what he was going to say.

“Jesus, he must’ve. What was it, Klaus?” This voice was different. Harsher.

“I-I don’t know, what do you want?”

“It’s okay, you just need to help us, Klaus.” Help us. Help me. Why did they always want that? He didn’t know what to do. There was really nothing he could do.

“Please…” he whimpered, “Just leave me alone….”

“Guys? Something’s not right. He said earlier right, he was feeling,” A small, cool hand pressed against Klaus’s forehead, and he tried to move away. “Just like I thought, sick, he’s burning up!” The voices still hurt his pounding head, he tried his best to plug his hands with his ears, but they were caught before he could.

“Hey, Klaus, listen. It’s Five. Nothing else. You probably can’t think for shit, but you’re safe. It’s… it’s okay. Let’s get you back to bed.”

A hazy part of Klaus wondered if he’d imagined Five’s voice or the uncharacteristically quiet tone it held. He couldn’t remember much other than that, which really was too bad, because his siblings could use some being made fun of for being so practically caring, even loving. But when he finally came to with a little more awareness, and a considerably lower fever, he was pretty damn sure he saw Five hurry quickly out of his room.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! I had a lot of fun writing this, even if it is very short. I definitely might change the title if I write a longer Klaus-centric story because I really like that. I am totally open to taking any Klaus prompts! I'm trying to get back in the swing of just writing and posting so if you want to check out my Tumblr @readingwritingcrying you can request something there or in the comments! 
> 
> Otherwise, thank you so much for reading and if you could leave a comment or kudos that honestly makes my day! 
> 
> (I am posting this at 3 am. I am going to read more fanfiction now. Please don't be like me, if it is late, take a break and get some sleep)


End file.
